January 27, 2008
SoulTalk
Speaking and Hearing Words of Life
SoulTalk2.mp3
Pastor Wade Burleson
Emmanuel Baptist Church
Enid OK

John 6:63; 66-68 (ESV)

63. It is the Spirit who give life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

66. After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
67. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?
68. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

In our introduction to this series we made two very important statements that will guide us as we learn the language of SoulTalk. We stated our thesis simply as "Life is all about knowing and enjoying God." We said that we can learn to talk with each other in ways that raise our passion for God until it becomes the most powerful desire in our soul. As Jesus spoke to issues related to the soul "many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him" (John 6:66). But when Jesus asked the twelve if they too would turn back, Peter responded, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

1. Notice the importance of authentic relationships - "To whom shall we go?"
   It is not "Where shall we go?" or "When shall we go?" but "To whom shall we go?" It is rare for a person to encounter someone with words that bring life to the soul. "Most people go through their entire life never speaking words to another human being that come out of what is deepest within them, and most people never hear words that reach all the wya into that deep place we call the soul" Larry Crabb. People remain personally unknown, personally unobserved, personally untouched. Authentic relationships draw the soul into another's soul and, together, into God. Churches can be as dangerous to the health of our soul as porn shops. People can leave superficially titillated and deeply numbed. Religion can often be irrelevant.
2. Notice the interruption of comfort in authentic relationships - "many turned back."
   It is never easy when people begin to delve into matters of the soul. It is often scary. By nature people do not desire to speak about knowing God and matters of the soul. SelfTalk is the natural language of every person ever born, except for Jesus Himself. SelfTalk is the language of self- protection, self-sufficiency, and self-absorption. Don't misunderstand. SelfTalk almost always sounds good. It is our social language. It is our religious language. It is our business language. It is not the language of the soul. "Most people tuck their soul out of sight and try desperately to ignore that something is missing that they can't supply. We speak few words that come out of an honest look into our soul, and few words are spoken to us that inspire the courage to take an honest look, that give us hope that painful authenticity could lead to real life" Larry Crabb.
3. Notice the impact of authentic relationships - "The words I have spoken are life."
   When you are in a relationship with someone where you either hear or give words of life, your life is transformed. When passion for knowing and enjoying God increases in the life of another because of what you say to him, then you have bestowed life. "The flesh profits nothing." The world will let you down. Life is filled with trouble. We cannot experience the love and joy of real life until we're connected to another at the level of the soul. We cannot know the freedom to be who we truly are until we yield who we really are to another and experience that person's acceptance. To know and enjoy God's love requires knowing and experiencing the love of another. We begin next week learning how to help others by being authentically supernatural.